de Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez, and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, September 4, 1836. 1836. Manuscript. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj015236/.
Jackson, Andrew, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to Andrew Jackson, July 4, 1836. 1836. Manuscript. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj015091/.
Andrew Jackson and Santa Anna communicated after the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. Santa Anna was a prisoner of war and wrote to the United States to seek support and his release. Jackson responded to protect peace and future negotiations with Mexico but also recognized Texas independence.
In 1836, Santa Anna wrote to President Andew Jackson, who replied two months later. Santa Anna had been detained by the Texas army, and he asked President Jackson to intervene on his behalf. Texas President Houston writes of these events in Romance and Tragedy of Texas History; being a record of many thrilling events in Texas history under Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-Saxon rule, also in the Library of Congress offerings. First, learners read the correspondence to infer what events surround the letters. Then, learners validate or adjust their predictions based on Houston’s account of the events.
Source: https://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org/santaanna4.htm
- How does correspondence document history?
- How does correspondence help readers understand the character of historical figures beyond the historical recitations and facts in history textbooks?
- How is correspondence adapted or abandoned in modern culture? What are the implications of modern modes of communication on the documentation of history?
ELA Standard
EI.4C. Comprehension. The students use metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts. (C) generate questions about the text before, during, and after reading to deepen understanding and gain information.
Social Studies Standard
USH(HS) 28A. Social studies skills. The student understands how historians use historiography to interpret the past and applies critical-thinking skills to organize and uses information acquired from a variety of valid sources, including technology. (A) The student is expected to analyze primary and secondary sources such as maps, graphs, speeches, political cartoons, and artifacts to acquire information to answer historical questions.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Introduce correspondence between Santa Anna and Andrew Jackson. Who are these men, and why are they writing letters to each other? What happened before the letters were written?
- Ask learners to use the letters to fill in the answers to the basic reporter’s questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. They may also use a general timeline to document when the events occurred.
- After learners have had time to build knowledge of the content in the letters, bring learners into small groups. What questions remain? What do we not know? Learners add these questions to their reporter’s notes.
- Present Houston’s narrative of Santa Anna’s capture and the following events: Romance and tragedy of Texas history; being a record of many thrilling events in Texas history under Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-Saxon rule. Learners add to their notes, cross out inaccuracies, and make adjustments to their initial findings.
- Debrief the experience with the class: What did we learn from the letters and firsthand accounts that we may have missed from a more encyclopedic treatment of the events?
- Using the letter generator from Read-Write-Think interactives, learners write a letter to Santa Anna, Houston, or Andrew Jackson about what a learner in 2025 learned about history from correspondence. Learners may also choose to write a letter to next year’s class, asking them to consider the importance of using correspondence in daily life to document events and communicate with others.
Thrall, Homer S. A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879. St. Louis: N. D. Thompson & Co., 1879. https://www.loc.gov/item/01006596/.